<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>To Raise the Storm by firecat</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27774250">To Raise the Storm</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/firecat/pseuds/firecat'>firecat</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Anal Sex, Blood Kink, Bondage, Chains, Contests, Deception, Devotion, Dubious Consent, Fight Sex, Fuck Or Die, Humiliation, Insanity, Knifeplay, M/M, Magic, Masochism, Mercy - Freeform, Mind Control, Oral Sex, POV Thor (Marvel), Power Dynamics, Public Sex, Rape/Non-con Elements, Rough Sex, Sacrifice, Sadism, Step-Sibling Incest, Telepathy, Whipping</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-19</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 08:01:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>8,516</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27774250</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/firecat/pseuds/firecat</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Hela has captured Loki and Thor on Asgard. She's using mind control to toy with them. She decides to pit them against each other in a "fuck or die" gladiatorial contest. She might get more than she bargained for.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Loki/Thor (Marvel)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Consent Issues Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/inlovewithnight/gifts">inlovewithnight</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p><i>Thor: Ragnarok</i> canon divergence: After Hela destroyed Thor's hammer, Thor ended up on Asgard. Loki ended up on Sakaar for a while, then came back to Asgard alone. Hela has captured both of them.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Thor had had similar dreams before. When he and his brother — adoptive brother, he reminded himself, although he’d not known it at the time — had been at odds, and young Thor had been unable to think of a suitable revenge for something the little trickster had done to him. Usually something humiliating, because something like this was how he imagined he would humiliate Loki in return.</p><p>But he hadn’t had those dreams for a while. And this one was so much more vivid.</p><p>Loki crushed beneath him. Thor holding both his hands behind his back in a vise grip. Thor’s other hand gripping Loki’s hip, hard enough to bruise. His cock buried in Loki’s ass, as he thrust in mercilessly. So angry. Needing to teach that bitch of a brother a lesson. </p><p>He kept getting angrier because he wanted Loki to suffer, to beg, to cry in pain as he ravaged him. But all Loki did was lie there against the table Thor had bent him over, his head turned to the side, his cheek crushed against the table’s surface, and grunt a little with each thrust. </p><p>Then Loki began speaking. In a calm, reasonable voice, seemingly completely unaffected by Thor’s huge cock ramming into him. </p><p><i>“She’s</i> making you do this, you know. Hela. Not that I mind terribly. On a ten point scale of annoyance to abject horror, having you fuck me in the ass is maybe a two or three. Under other circumstances it would be less than zero. But your having broken several of my ribs first makes it less fun for me.”</p><p>Thor couldn’t stand that Loki was so calm. Broken ribs? He’d do anything to break the rest of infuriating scoundrel. He grabbed Loki and threw him on his back on the table. He struck Loki in the face several times, bent his legs up to his chest and rammed his cock into Loki’s ass again. With each thrust he slapped Loki’s face hard enough to knock it to one side or the other.</p><p>Loki started to groan then, and Thor finally felt satisfied that he was hurting him. His balls tightened, his cock swelled and Loki’s ass felt even tighter around it. He was going to come soon. He’d never gotten off on causing pain before — oh, occasionally a little spanking was a turn-on, but only when asked, not at all the same thing. But he felt more aroused than he remembered feeling in a long time. Because he was <i>hurting</i> Loki, really hurting him, and that’s what he craved so much...</p><p><i>“Yessss,”</i> groaned Loki after a particularly hard slap. He bucked a little, and Thor felt something wet splash against his belly. He suddenly realized with a rush of humiliation that hadn’t been hurting Loki at all, not the way he wanted to. Loki fucking <i>liked</i> Thor slapping his face and reaming him.</p><p>Suddenly Thor was alone in a black, cold place. The dungeon where she had locked him, he remembered after a few seconds. Not the modern dungeon with its magic-sealed cells that Loki had been kept in. That one was destroyed. This was the dungeon of iron and stone, deep under the earth, that held the prisoners that Asgard wanted to forget about.</p><p>He was sitting propped against the wall like he had been all along. His legs spread and shackled like before. He would have assumed he’d just dreamed and woken up, except for one thing. One of his hands had at some point been freed from the shackle chaining it above his head. The hand was wrapped around his detumescing cock. The wetness on his belly was his own come, not Loki’s.</p><p>Thor felt like sobbing in helplessness and frustration. But he was sure Hela was watching and wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Thor didn’t know how much time had passed, but it seemed like only a moment later that the door to his cell swung open. He shut his eyes against the glare, then slitted them open enough to see a silhouette in the doorway. Loki’s.</p><p>“What?” said Thor, his eyes still burning from what seemed like a glaring sun, although he knew the dungeon corridors were lit only by a few dim torches. </p><p>He hoped Loki was there to rescue him, to release him. Even after so many years of betrayal, he still held at the back of his mind the memory of a brother who was an admirer and an ally more often than not. The sight of Loki’s deceptively mild stance, his hands behind his back, his head tilted sideways, made Thor’s heart soften, Hela-induced hallucinations notwithstanding. </p><p>“She’s left me my voice and my conscience, to the extent I have one. But my actions are not mine,” said Loki. “I’m trying to fight it, but she’s strong, Brother, and growing ever more so the longer she stays in Asgard.”</p><p>“What?” said Thor again, still addled from being locked up alone in the dark for three days. </p><p>Loki advanced into the cell and unshackled Thor’s arm. Thor tried to grab Loki’s throat with it, but he simply swatted the hand away and moved to unshackle Thor’s legs, using a large iron key. </p><p>Thor grabbed his throat again. </p><p>“If it were up to me, I’d gladly let you strangle me,” said Loki. </p><p>His voice was mild but there was an edge hidden just under the surface that Thor reacted to on a visceral level. </p><p>Thor realized for the first time that he’d reacted to that edge for a long time. He had subconsciously learned to give Loki a wide berth when he heard it. Which undoubtedly was part of the way Loki had found so many opportunities to plot mischief. </p><p>This time, though, Thor sensed the dangerous mood wasn’t directed at him. </p><p>“I’d let you strangle me, because I’ve had quite enough of being toyed with,” Loki continued. “As it is, though, if you don’t let go of my throat, I suspect I’ll have to break your wrist.”</p><p>Thor let go of his throat. </p><p>“She’s somehow joined our minds. At least I assume that’s what was going on when I started experiencing that delightful vision where you were fucking and beating me. Not that I haven’t fantasized about you, Brother, but not like that — raw sadism doesn’t seem like your style.”</p><p>Thor had too many things he wanted to say. None of them made its way out of his mouth, because Loki picked him up like a sack of potatoes and strode out the door.</p><p>“Where are you taking me?” Thor demanded finally.</p><p>“I don’t know. Have you ever played the type of Midgardian video game called a first person shooter?”</p><p>“Of course,” Thor said, feeling more than ever that nothing was making any sense.</p><p>“Think of me as a character in such a game. My actions are being controlled, but I don’t know what I’m going to do until I do it.”</p><p>“And Hela is doing this to you?”</p><p>“Either that, or I’m back on Sakaar in the grip of a very strong psychedelic.”</p><p>“You’re not,” said Thor.</p><p>“Of course, that’s what you’d say regardless.”</p><p>“Loki, if that were happening to me I’d go crazy. How can you act as if all these things — sadistic visions, being controlled — are perfectly normal?”</p><p>Loki made a soft scoffing noise. “Think again about what you just said, Brother.”</p><p>“I can’t think right now.”</p><p>“Very well, I can put it one of two ways. One, I have experience with a wider range of ‘normality’ than you. I was with Thanos for years. And then I was in Asgard’s dungeons. And after that, ruling Asgard, disguised as Odin. Lately, and weirdest of all, I was on Sakaar, having done what it took to convince the Grandmaster that I was delighted to be his BFF and personal fucktoy.”</p><p>“What’s the other way you can put it?”</p><p>“I’m already crazy, Brother.” </p><p>“Oh.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Loki opened a door and carried Thor through it.</p><p>It was a torture chamber. It was in a remote corner of the palace compound, and Thor remembered that he and other noble Asgardian children, including Loki, had been shown it once. They were told by whichever adults were in charge of them that day, that we don’t use this any more, but we don’t dismantle it either, because we need the reminder of what we once were and shall never be again.</p><p>“Or, we are keeping it handy in case we change our minds,” Loki had whispered loudly at one point, earning the glares of the adults. </p><p>Thor had never counted prescience among Loki’s talents, but...</p><p>Loki set Thor down under a rectangular metal frame about ten feet high. Thor tried to turn and grapple with him. Loki slammed his hand into Thor’s knee, dislocating his kneecap. </p><p>“I’m sorry, Brother,” he said over Thor’s bellow of pain. Then he proceeded calmly to fasten Thor to the contraption, dragging his arms over his head and chaining them to the top of the frame, spreading his legs and strapping his ankles to its sides. The straps were metal and sharp, so that Thor couldn’t struggle without scraping or cutting himself. Thor suspected that whatever Hela was going to make Loki do to him, it would make him want to struggle. </p><p>He thought he heard her laughter then. </p><p>“Eternity is not long enough for the torments I’ll make you suffer when I best you,” Loki said. “I’ll gladly devote the rest of my millennia to the project.”</p><p>Thor thought at first that Loki was talking to him. But then the laughter came again, and he realized that Loki was talking to Hela. Thor craned his neck, but he couldn’t see her. The restraints didn’t allow him a wide field of vision. Probably Hela wasn’t there anyway. She could be projecting herself, the way Loki did sometimes. </p><p>“Are you that distraught at the idea of torturing your brother?” Hela said.</p><p>“No,” said Loki. “I’d very much prefer to be the one making the decision to torture him, that’s all. As it is, I’m merely your puppet. Where’s the fun in that, Hela? You get none of the pleasure if you force me to do it.”</p><p>“Maybe I like to watch,” Hela said.</p><p>Loki was gathering various implements. Whips, cats, knives. As he picked up a cat o’ nine tails with sharp metal bits at the ends, he suddenly lashed at his arm with it, drawing blood. Thor saw him bite back a groan.</p><p>“Which do you like better, Loki,” Hela’s voice came. “Feeling pain, or inflicting it?”</p><p>Loki struck out again with the cat and hit Thor’s chest with it. Thor yelled as the sting of the wounds bloomed on his skin. </p><p>Loki stood still, watching blood trickle down Thor’s chest. </p><p>“Feeling it,” Loki said. </p><p>“Living up to your moniker, God of Lies,” said Hela’s voice. “You love being hurt, I can tell, but inflicting it? So much hotter, isn’t it?”</p><p>“If you say so,” Loki replied. Then he put the cat down and began taking his clothes off. Thor watched with more interest than he was comfortable admitting to himself, as Loki’s body was revealed to him. His pale skin, beaded with sweat. His wiry build. His cock, as long as Thor’s, standing rigid against his belly. </p><p>“Well, well. Loki enjoys hurting you. What do you think of that, Thor?” Hela’s voice said.</p><p>Loki was looking at him, eyebrows up. His face was more vulnerable than Thor had seen in a long time. That made Thor think Hela wasn’t controlling Loki’s facial expressions. </p><p>“It’s not news to me,” said Thor lightly. “Loki’s tormented me my whole life. You’re only giving him an excuse to do what he wants to do anyway.” </p><p>He shot Loki a glance and hoped he’d communicated what he wanted to: <i>Let her think we’re more estranged than we are.</i> Thor wasn’t quite sure why this was important, but he went with what his gut was telling him.</p><p>“Is that so?” Hela said. “Well, Loki. Apparently we have more in common than we thought.”</p><p>Loki picked up a small blade and ran it lightly across his forearm, the one that wasn’t already bleeding from the bites of the cat. Blood welled up immediately. This time he did groan out loud.</p><p>“Of course you and I have things in common, Hela,” Loki said. “We have both been mistreated terribly by our father. I for one am delighted the old tyrant’s dead. I would happily join you in tearing Asgard to pieces.”</p><p>Thor knew Loki was lying. He’d rather own Asgard than tear it down. Didn’t he do just that during the years he’d ruled disguised as Odin? But Thor’s instincts still told him he and Loki should appear estranged to Hela. “Loki, no!” he gasped.</p><p>Hela didn’t say anything, but it was as if her <i>pondering</i> used up all the air in the room. </p><p>“So, you’d like it if I forced you to kill your brother?” suggested Hela.</p><p>Loki put down the small knife and picked up a larger one.</p><p>“To be honest, no, Sister.”</p><p>“‘Sister.’ How sweet,” said Hela dryly. “Why not? Are you sentimental about him, in spite of the fact that he stole away everything you deserved? Only because he was golden and beautiful and pure Asgardian?” </p><p>“As you so insightfully pointed out, I enjoy hurting him. If I kill him now, I cannot look forward to that any more. And as you can see from the state of this part of me, I am rather eager to do some of that.” He pulled on his hard cock, letting it spring back up to hit his belly. “It’s affected by my parasympathetic system. You don’t seem to have control of that.”</p><p>“Something’s got you aroused, that’s true. Is it hurting Thor? Or maybe it’s being in my control.”</p><p>Loki picked up a dildo and stuck it up his ass, started fucking himself with it. His face took on an annoyed expression.</p><p>Hela chuckled. “What’s wrong? Don’t you like being forced to play with yourself?”</p><p>“It would be more fun if I had more of an audience,” Loki drawled. “And if my compliance were enforced with a shock collar, the way the Grandmaster did it. There is more self-humiliation that way, knowing you are doing it out of cowardice, to avoid pain, rather than that you have no choice because someone is using your body as a marionette.”</p><p>As he made these pronouncements, he was fucking himself faster. His eyes rolled back — and then he suddenly fell on the floor, all his muscles having gone slack. </p><p>“You’ve made quite a study of such things, haven’t you, Step-brother?” said Hela. </p><p>Loki got up, or perhaps Hela made him get up. </p><p>“What can I say? The opportunity keeps coming up, for some reason. I focus on what I can learn in any situation, to keep myself from getting bored.” </p><p>“I see,” said Hela, sounding bored herself. “All right, I’ll let you decide. Provided I get to see pain. Tears. Blood. Begging.”</p><p>Thor saw Loki swallow hard, and it didn’t look like an expression of discomfort.</p><p>“Don’t maim him though. I might need him whole later,” Hela added.</p><p>“Thank you, Hela,” Loki said, with feeling. </p><p>That scared Thor. Loki never thanked anybody. Was he trying to send Thor some kind of message?</p><p>He didn’t have long to think about it. In two swift strides Loki was pressed up against him, and too many things were happening at once.</p><p>“Sell the pain, Brother,” Loki hissed in his ear. Then he kissed him roughly.</p><p>Thor didn’t know how it happened, whether it was part of Loki’s magic, or just a distillation of their millennia-long relationship, but he suddenly knew several things.</p><p>Loki loved him. </p><p>Loki betrayed him over and over, partly because the trickster was in his nature, and partly because he feared that if did not hide his love behind the cold, sarcastic shell he lived within, he would damage Thor beyond repair. </p><p>Loki thought his love was poison. </p><p><i>Maybe he’s right,</i> Thor had a moment to think. <i>But give it me to drink.</i> </p><p>Then Loki hit him again with the cat, and Thor howled. All his attention went to responding to the pain.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Thor was more or less hanging from his wrists. His feet were on the floor, but his legs weren’t doing a good job of holding him upright. </p><p>His chest and back and arms and thighs were covered with bloody welts from the cat’s sharp metal claws. The implement had been abandoned on the floor, because, as Loki said, “now it’s time to get up close and personal.”</p><p>Which was why Loki was holding Thor’s chin in one hand and drawing the point of a knife down his cheek with the other. </p><p>Loki was grinning madly and panting with arousal. His cock was hard against Thor’s thigh, and Thor’s was fast awakening. He didn’t find the pain arousing in itself, but he was attuned in a way he never would have imagined to Loki’s excitement. The way Loki gasped each time he struck Thor. The little growls of pleasure he made when he licked the blood from his wounds — Thor felt he would endure almost anything Loki wanted to do to him, only to hear those sounds again. </p><p>Was this some kind of mind control? Was Hela putting thoughts, feelings, desires into his head?</p><p>But he knew it wasn’t true, and shame poured through him. He was Thor, God of Thunder and rightful heir to the throne of Asgard. He wasn’t supposed to be in thrall to his step-brother’s sadistic lust for him. </p><p>Loki’s hands moved, as quick as a snake-strike. The flat of the knife pressed coldly against one of Thor’s nipples. Loki’s other hand encompassed both of their cocks, squeezed them together. He moved his hips, sliding his hard length against Thor’s. Thor groaned, not in pain this time. </p><p>Thor felt the knife point bite. Loki drew a circle with it around Thor’s nipple. Only the shallowest of cuts, but it stung and blood oozed slowly from the skin. </p><p>Loki’s mouth closed around the wound, sucking, his tongue lapping at the nipple, which hardened instantly. </p><p>He squeezed and pulled with his hand around both their cocks. Through the pain and sensory overload, Thor felt Loki’s body go rigid, felt Loki’s cock throb against his own. </p><p><i>“Brother,”</i> Loki rasped.</p><p>Then hot liquid was spilling onto his belly, over his cock. Thor didn’t know if it was his come or Loki’s, didn’t know anything but white hot pleasure, transforming the pain, drowning out the shame for a few blissful moments. </p><p>~~~</p><p>“Oh, very nice,” Hela’s sarcastic voice said, as Thor’s shame returned full force. “But I want more entertainment. Do continue.”</p><p>“Bring us to you, and we’ll perform in front of you,” Loki said. His voice was seductive now. Low. Inviting. Thor felt the pull of it, as if Loki were addressing him. Revulsion and desire warred within his body.</p><p>Loki turned away from Thor. He began picking up the implements of pain he’d collected, one by one, and caressing them. As if lovingly imagining the tortures each one could mete out. “Are you in the throne room? <i>Think of it,</i> Hela. Sitting on the throne — <i>your</i> throne — watching me use Thor. Or you could have him torture me instead. Watch him beat me. Fuck me. You wouldn’t have to coerce him, I assure you. We’ve hated each other for centuries. How victorious you would feel. Your rivals for Odin’s throne, the mighty gods Thor and Loki, reduced to performing like vicious animals for your amusement.”</p><p>Thor was horrified. Through the fog in his mind, he knew Loki was up to something, but he didn’t know what it could be. In the best of times, he only rarely sussed out Loki’s trickeries. And this was far from the best of times. </p><p>“My, Sakaar <i>has</i> changed you, little step-brother,” Hela said in an unctuous voice. “Crave humiliation, do you? I could have you perform for my Legions, my army of the dead, and then they could suck your souls out and devour your flesh.”</p><p>“As you say, Queen,” Loki said. “It might be of benefit to keep me alive temporarily, though. I have secrets you would find useful.”</p><p>“You won’t keep your secrets from me for long, Trickster,” she replied coolly. </p><p>“Likely you’re right,” Loki said nonchalantly. He glanced at Thor, so quickly that if Thor had blinked at that moment, he would have missed it. </p><p>“And you’re uncharacteristically quiet, God of Thunder,” she said. “Oh, but that’s not your moniker any more, is it? I destroyed your <i>power tool.</i> Still. What are you willing to do to keep in my good graces? Or what are you hungry to do? You enjoyed fucking your brother in the vision I sent you...for all that you weren’t able to hurt the masochistic ice monster the way you wanted. You could do it now. You saw how I can control him. I could force him to be compliant. Or just leave him helpless to resist you.” </p><p>Thor wanted it, and he was horrified at how much.</p><p>“But I have a better idea,” Hela said then, with decision. “A contest. Winner takes loser. Fuck or kill. It will take place on the steps of the palace, between the coronation arches. Your subjects will see that they can’t hold out hope you’ll save them, since you’ll be too busy destroying each other.”</p><p>Thor glanced at Loki and saw that his body language had changed. He was rigid and trembling, his face a rictus of anxiety. </p><p>“Hela, no,” Loki gasped. “We will perform for you, however you wish, but please, not at the coronation arch. It’s a strong power concentrator. It will tear us apart before you get your entertainment out of us.”</p><p>The silence seemed to thicken the air, until Thor felt he could scarcely breathe.</p><p><i>“Please,”</i> Loki rasped again. </p><p>Thor remembered Loki telling him some of the fables he’d discovered on Midgard. One was about a rabbit named Br’er. </p><p>“Oh, Loki,” she said. “I <i>like</i> the taste of your fear. Yes, I think doing it between the coronation arches is just the thing.”</p><p>Loki again flashed Thor the quickest of glances. His eyes were shining.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>On the palace steps, coronations took place between two split arches. Like a parabolic mirror, the arches concentrated energy, allowed new rulers to put on an impressive show of their mighty powers for their subjects.</p><p>Of course no coronations had taken place in quite some time, but still the people remembered the spot as sacred. Holy. In the sense of the term that included “dangerous.”</p><p>Hela had desecrated it already, erected at its center a metal pole, taller even than the arches, with chains and shackles attached to it.</p><p>As soon as he set foot in it, Thor could feel the power concentrated there. His own power over thunder and lightning seemed weak without his hammer, but the nexus pulled what he could access to the surface. Sparks trickled between his fingertips, too small for anyone else to notice. </p><p>Loki, too, was affected. Thor caught a glimpse of his eyes, and they were glowing, green and red. But Loki kept his eyes down and slitted. He didn’t want anyone but Thor to know of the transformation. </p><p>It wasn’t just the eyes. Thor saw Loki’s barely contained arousal and purpose. He’d never seen the like — and Thor had seen Loki at his most purposeful more than once. Confronting Laufey on Jotun. Nearly bringing down the Avengers. Revenging himself on Malekith and the Dark Elves.</p><p>Hela’s Legions watched, dark and hungry. </p><p>The Asgardians watched, fearful. Their numbers were reduced from what Thor remembered. Where were the rest? Surely Hela hadn’t killed <i>all</i> of them?</p><p>Hela apparently thought the performance would be more dramatic if Thor and Loki entered in their finest royal splendor — only to have it stripped away from them by four of her Legions, until they were both naked. </p><p>Thor had no mirror, but being naked in the nexus felt good. He felt strong, powerful. He realized then that he was sensing the reactions of those watching. Somehow being nourished by them. </p><p>He looked at Loki, seeing him fully naked once more, and the lightning trickling between his fingers suddenly sparked bright, in the same moment that his groin tightened with desire. The spark lasted only for a microsecond, but there were several gasps from the watching Asgardians. </p><p>He noticed something else about Loki. He had a swirl of energy surrounding his body, a sort of aura — if auras looked like they might form breakaway tornadoes at any moment. He could see Loki <i>pulling</i> this aural energy from the ground, from the air. </p><p>Could Hela see it?</p><p>Thor became aware of her voice, and he knew it was effortlessly projecting itself to every Asgardian in the city. Her holographic image, far larger than life, appeared near the pole.</p><p>“Your royals have surrendered to me. I have granted them new roles as gladiators,” she announced, then said lightly, “Well, to clarify, I only need one gladiator. They will fight for the position. Fight, and fuck, and one will die. Does that sound entertaining, my subjects and Legions?”</p><p>The Asgardians’ expressions ranged from guarded to ill-at-ease to horrified. The horrified expressions were quickly hidden. Not a good idea to let Hela know you’re unhappy about something that’s her idea, they’d already learned.</p><p>The Legions muttered dark approval. “Let us help,” shouted a few.</p><p>“I shall. I suspect my gladiators will need a little encouragement,” Hela said. Her projection nodded at the four Legions who had stripped them. “Stand at the arches. If they seem insufficiently engaged, you may take whatever action you like. Short of killing or maiming them. That pleasure is reserved to me.”</p><p>She raised her voice again. “Goal of round one, gladiators: shackle your <i>brother</i> to the pole. Once you have, you may use him as you wish. Begin.” The image of her manifested a whip and snapped it, producing a deafening crack that reminded Thor of lightning. </p><p>Thor shook his head, feeling as if he’d forgotten something. But he couldn’t pursue it now, because Loki was on him, faster than he thought anyone could move. </p><p>Instead of grappling with Thor and dragging him to the pole, Loki pulled Thor to the ground. In a confusing pretense of struggle, he rolled Thor on top of him. </p><p>“Take me, brother.”</p><p>“Loki!” Thor hissed.</p><p>“Don’t ask questions. Take me, hurt me. I need it for what I’m trying to do. You can see it, can’t you?”</p><p><i>The aura?</i> wondered Thor. “I don’t want to hurt you, Brother,” he hissed.</p><p>“Now is not the time for delicate sensibilities.”</p><p>“But —“</p><p>Loki bit his cheek. Hard. Drawing blood.</p><p>Thor’s anger broke free, rolling over his reluctance like a wave breaking on sand. It felt like his body swelled with it, his muscles bulging and flexing with the desire to be used for destruction. The sparks ran over his hands, turning them blue for an instant.</p><p>He climbed to his feet, hauling Loki with him. Loki struggled. Loki sagged, dead weight in his grip. Loki tried to entangle his limbs. A stream of barbs and mockery issued from his mouth, the way it used to when they were young and Loki was feeling that he’d lost points in their endless game of striving to be Father’s favorite. </p><p><i>Loki is provoking me on purpose,</i> Thor realized dimly in a hidden recess of his mind. It didn’t temper the rage. </p><p>When they reached the pole, Loki put forth a sudden effort to escape and was nearly successful. Loki had Thor’s wrist in one hand and a shackle in the other. </p><p>Thor thrust Loki to his knees. He took Loki’s head in his hands. </p><p><i>“No, Brother! Don’t shackle me!”</i> shouted Loki.</p><p>Thor suddenly remembered the goal of this round of the game. He fastened the shackles around Loki’s wrists and then yanked to shorten them, drawing Loki’s hands over his head. Loki’s abject howl made Thor’s cock throb. It felt enormous, and he wanted nothing more than to make his miserable brother choke on it.</p><p>He pulled Loki’s head back by the hair and shoved the cock in his mouth. </p><p>Loki’s mouth was stretched wide around Thor’s thick tool. His eyes were slitted and Thor couldn’t tell if it was from discomfort or pleasure or both. Thor knew, between that and the heat of Loki’s mouth, and the wet gagging sounds he was making, he wouldn’t last long. </p><p>Loki’s mouth was <i>fizzy,</i> as if it were full of sparkling mead. The tickling sensation brought Thor to the edge even faster. Thor pulled his cock out when he was just at the edge, thinking he’d finish on his face.</p><p>“No, Brother Thor. Give it to me. Down my throat. <i>I need it.”</i></p><p>Thor didn’t need to be asked twice. He pushed his cock back in Loki’s mouth and Loki lunged upward, shoving it to the back of his throat until his lips were kissing Thor’s pubic bone. Thor held his head there and rutted against him. Something about this, the satisfaction of having Loki on his knees at last, dominating his brother with his cock, the roaring of the crowd of enemies and allies alike, filled his body with power. He spilled down Loki’s throat with a loud groan. </p><p>Far away, there was a rumble in the sky. </p><p>Loki was hanging his head down, to the extent that his shackled arms allowed. His hair fell in sweat-soaked strands around him. He was coughing, and when that passed, he just slumped there on his knees. Thor was pretty sure only he could sense that this was not a defeated Loki, but a <i>gathering</i> one. The aura of energy was stronger now. It was streaming not only from the ground but from the four half arches. No one seemed to see it but Thor. </p><p>“Round one to Thor,” came Hela’s voice, and Thor’s body reacted to it with a flush of arousal — not sexual, but the arousal of imminent battle. “We’ll make it the best of three, and after that, the kill.” </p><p>There was a loud snapping sound, and the shackles holding Loki’s wrists opened.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Loki leapt at Thor so fast, it was as if he’d known he was to be released. This time, there was no deliberate surrender. Loki pulled Thor’s arms behind his back in an iron grip and began hauling him toward the pole. </p><p>“My turn,” he hissed.</p><p>Thor reacted instinctively. There was no room in his head for wondering if Loki was playing out some strategy, and if so, what it might be. Thor didn’t want another beating at his hands. His entire being was devoted to getting his brother off him, subduing him.</p><p>Thor tore away from him again and again, but like the monsters in his childhood nightmares, Loki just kept coming back. His face was twisted in a savage grin. Thor kept losing ground and being dragged toward the pole. </p><p>“I’m going to give it all back to you and then some, Brother,” Loki said gleefully. “I love how hard you’re resisting me. Keep it up. Gods, doesn’t all this power feel glorious!” His emerald eyes were ringed with red. </p><p>Thor’s final effort to escape wasn’t good enough. His wrists were shackled to the pole. Loki paced back and forth in front of him, thrumming with energy. With purpose.</p><p>“Well, Hela?” he said in a conversational tone.</p><p>“Use him as you will, younger brother,” the projection of Hela said, “as long as you keep us entertained. Don’t expend all your energy, though. You’ll need it for the third round.” </p><p>Loki maneuvered Thor’s body as if it weighed no more than a child’s rag doll. Something about being shackled weakened Thor. He felt cut off from his energy. Whenever he tried to resist, Loki used the chain to twist Thor’s joints in a way he couldn’t stand. He was forced to submit.</p><p>Eventually both his hands were braced against the pole, and Loki pulled his hips back, bent him over, and kicked his legs apart. Thor felt Loki’s hands running over his back, his chest, his belly. The hands were hot and Thor’s body tingled where they touched him, almost the way it used to when he was focusing his energy, preparing to use Mjolnir. </p><p>Loki wrapped his hand around Thor’s half hard cock and stroked it slowly to rigidity. That same fizzy sensation he’d felt in Loki’s mouth returned. Then Loki slapped his cock hard. Thor’s whole body jolted. He saw the blue flash across his hands again, and the tip of the pole crackled with it for the briefest of moments.</p><p><i>Loki is connected into my power,</i> Thor realized abruptly. The power he had used to control the weather, before Hela had destroyed his hammer. How was Loki doing this?</p><p>“You start to understand now, Brother,” Loki said. His tone was mocking and triumphant, but Thor couldn’t help but think the message was something more complex than “I bested you.”</p><p>“Now I’m going to give it to you,” Loki continued. “Everything you’ve been missing. I’m going to fill you with it. I’m going to stuff you so full of it that it will come out your eyes, and mouth, and fingertips.”</p><p>Loki gripped Thor’s ass and thrust all the way in. He groaned loudly. </p><p>Thor groaned too. Loki was huge and the impalement hurt badly. But his body clenched around Loki’s cock like it had never wanted anything more in its thousand year existence.</p><p>“Brother, it feels so good to be fucking you at last,” Loki said, still in the mocking voice, playing to the audience of Hela and her Legion, but delivering another message to Thor. </p><p>Thor expected to be reamed hard and unrelentingly, and he was surprised. After the first violent intrusion, Loki fucked him, not gently, but slowly, with long deep thrusts. Thor began to feel that fizzing sensation again, this time filling his belly and then beginning to spread outward into the rest of his body.</p><p>There were clouds in the sky that hadn’t been there earlier, and one of them ate the sun. Thor felt a chill across his skin. </p><p>“Yesss,” hissed Loki, too quietly for the crowds to hear. “Bring it, Brother. Build the storm.” He pushed in deep, ground his hips against Thor, and Thor cried out from the pleasure of it. </p><p>He’d rarely imagined Loki fucking him, certainly less often than the other way around. And when he did, usually it was part of a hate sex fantasy. He’d never realized how much he’d secretly longed for his step-brother to take him with purpose and...<i>reverence</i> like this. He would have denied Loki was even capable of such, but experiencing it, he felt like he was <i>home.</i> Like this was always where he belonged, and with whom.</p><p>“Time to <i>push</i> it into you a little harder, God of Thunder,” Loki said in his crowd-pleasing voice. His hands gripped Thor’s hips with increased strength, painfully, but the pain was good, because Loki began to fuck him harder now, faster, his hips smacking loudly against Thor’s ass with each thrust. Thor jerked himself back against Loki, trying to push him deeper inside. He began to growl and moan. </p><p>The Legions jeered. The Asgardians murmured. Here and there, one glanced at the sky, filling ever more rapidly with clouds. </p><p>“You’re getting filled up so well, aren’t you, Brother?” Loki mocked. “I always knew you’d love my cock. Your tight <i>fucking</i> ass makes it even bigger. Do you feel it? How I’m stuffing it into you?”</p><p>“I feel it, Loki,” Thor rasped.</p><p>“Am I making you tingle all over? Am I giving you something you so desperately need?”</p><p>“Yes, Loki, <i>fuck...”</i></p><p>“I’m going to come, Thor. Into your tight body. I want you to hold it, do you hear me? Let it simmer in you. It will be time soon.”</p><p>Thor wasn’t quite sure what Loki meant. His mind was increasingly distracted by the tension building in his groin as Loki used him harder. </p><p>All of a sudden Loki was screaming, a cry Thor had never heard from him before. Thor felt Loki’s hot come filling him. But that wasn’t all. He felt the energy of a thousand thousand thunderstorms swelling in him. He glanced at the half arches and saw the air around the tops of them shimmering, like a heat mirage. He suspected that if he could see Loki, he’d be shimmering the same way. </p><p>“Oh Gods, it hurts!” Loki cried out. “Oh yessss...” Thor did turn his head then, saw Loki’s body jerking, saw the grimace of pain and ecstasy on his face.</p><p>Loki tore away from Thor and fell to his knees, but his hands were raised to the sky, now boiling with thick clouds, and he released a wordless howl. </p><p>Silence then. Stretching for five, ten seconds... </p><p>Thor knew that if he yanked at the shackles now, they would break as if they were made of eggshell. </p><p>But Loki had warned him to hold it. To wait. And Thor could feel his power growing within him again. Not yet fully manifested. He glanced at the half arches, saw he was directly connected to the energy streams now. </p><p>He embraced the pole with his shackled hands and let himself go limp, as if exhausted.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Slow clapping. </p><p><i>“Most</i> entertaining, Step-brother,” came Hela’s voice. “I’m leaning toward ending the match right now and choosing you as my gladiator. You have a flair for the dramatic that the once-mighty Thor lacks.”</p><p>“Grant me a boon, Sister,” says Loki in a carrying voice.</p><p>“What ‘boon’ would you have of the Goddess of Death, Loki Laufeyson?”</p><p>Thor saw Loki’s eyes narrow as Hela reminded him of his origins, the madness that came upon him when he discovered Odin’s lies, which started them down this road to destruction, to Ragnarok. </p><p>“Grace your minions with your physical presence, Hela. Do you not want to be close enough to feel the blood spatter on you in the final moment? Think how much more exciting it will be. Amidst your Legion, before your new worshippers, the Asgardians, and their vanquished rulers.”</p><p>Thor was worried that Loki was taking things too far. Anything could happen if Hela actually came to the stage between the coronation arches. </p><p>“Loki...” he murmured warningly.</p><p>Loki spun, almost faster than Thor could follow, and struck his face.</p><p>Thor cried out, more in shock than in pain. The slap roiled the energies filling him. Loki’s eyes were blazing at him, but more in excitement than anger. He made a slight beckoning gesture with his fingers. </p><p>Thor understood. </p><p>“Loki, no! Don’t bring Hela to the stage! She’ll kill us all!”</p><p>Loki walked up to him. Took his chin in his hand and raised it.</p><p>“Perhaps you’re right,” he said, again playing to the crowd. “Hela needn’t participate directly in this death. She wouldn’t gain anything by it. We’re just a nuisance to be disposed of.”</p><p>Cries of agreement from the Legion, and murmurs of shock from the Asgardians, and then a sudden hush from all quarters. </p><p>Hela was on the stage, in the flesh. She stalked toward them with catlike grace, resplendent in her antlered battle helmet, her eyes gleaming with victory and blood-lust.</p><p>She walked right up to Loki. For a few seconds, fear possessed his face and his hands moved restlessly, nervously. </p><p>Hela’s hand went into his sweat-dampened hair and her mouth fell on his in a hungry, possessive kiss.</p><p>Briefly, he seemed frozen. And then Thor saw him react, opening his mouth and leaning in to kiss her back, his hand moving to the back of her head.</p><p>Hela allowed this for a moment, and then placed a hand on his chest and gave what seemed to be a gentle thrust. But Loki stumbled backward almost to the edge of the stage. </p><p>He fell to his knees and gazed up at her, longingly, worshipfully. </p><p>“Since you are bound and determined to convince me you’re my faithful servant, I will grant you another favor.” </p><p>“Yes, my Queen?” said Loki in a low, eager voice.</p><p>“I’m going to kill your brother now. But you may have him first. Take him one last time. Strike the first blow, if you wish.”</p><p>Loki’s entire face glowed with eagerness. </p><p>Thor had been at risk of death any number of times in his thousand years. </p><p>This time terrified him the most.</p><p>He thought he knew what Loki was up to, and where his loyalties lay. But he saw Loki’s worshipful gaze at Hela, the way his cock swelled when she kissed him, and jumped when she said she was going to kill Thor. <i>What if he was wrong?</i> </p><p>He knew he had the strength to break the shackles now, but what good would that do? He could probably defeat the four Legions who stood guard on stage, but what about the rest of them? What about Hela herself? </p><p>If only he still had his power. His hammer.</p><p>Loki was approaching him now. Arousal, excitement, the thrill of battle on his face. His cock rigid against his belly. That awakened Thor’s own. </p><p>Hela was right behind him, her eyes wide with excited curiosity. A long, serrated knife in her hand.</p><p>“Brother,” Loki rasped. “Forgive me, I must do this through pain.”</p><p>He began kissing Thor, forcing his mouth open. His hand encircled Thor’s cock, tugging in a fast rhythm that was impossible to ignore. </p><p>The fizzy feeling returned, reverberating through Thor’s whole body. He kissed Loki back and rolled his hips, pushing into Loki’s hand.</p><p>Hela was pressed up against Loki’s back, breathing harshly. </p><p>Loki was relentless. Devastating. Thor had never made the climb toward orgasm so fast in his life, even when he was an adolescent first awash in sex hormones. </p><p>And then, suddenly, there was a weapon in Loki’s other hand. A short spear, pointed on both ends. One end pressed against Thor’s chest and the other against Loki’s.</p><p>“Brother, know this: <i>You are not the God of Hammers,”</i> he said. </p><p>With a mighty thrust, Loki pulled Thor against him. The weapon sank into Thor’s chest. </p><p>And into Loki’s.</p><p>Hela screamed in rage, suddenly, too late, realizing what Loki had done.</p><p>Loki screamed in pain and triumph.</p><p>A bolt of lightning surged down from the thunderclouds above the coronation arches, hitting the pole that Hela had erected there.</p><p>Thor roared as the power that had poured into him began rushing out through the hole Loki had made in him, to meet a similar stream bubbling out of Loki’s body. A stream more potent than any thunderstorm. And Thor saw — was it in his own mind, or was he sharing Loki’s? — he saw immediately how to use it, aim it, direct it, as he never had before. Against this control, the focus Mjolnir had afforded him felt unwieldy and bulky, like trying to sew while wearing a leather mitten. </p><p><i>“Push,”</i> whispered Loki in his mind, and as he responded, he saw the active force made up of both of them, forming and aiming bolts of power targeting the Legion, counteracting the magic Hela had used to revive them, instantly returning them to their interrupted rest. </p><p>And he saw the mighty spear of power forged from the life energy of both of them, concentrated by the half arches into something far stronger than even the God of Thunder and the God of Chaos could have created on their own. He saw that it was aimed, not at Hela herself, but at the dark magic of death and destruction that had all but consumed her as she had lain imprisoned by Odin.</p><p>He saw it fly at her, and strike her.</p><p>And then his whole world went white, and he saw no more.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>White shaded to gray and then there was color. Thor opened his eyes. </p><p>He recognized the person who bent over him. One of the palace healers. The expression on his face was one of mixed relief and concern. </p><p><i>What?</i> Thor struggled to rise. He needed to fight...</p><p>The healer pushed him back with only a fingertip. “You must rest, your Highness. You are yet weak.” </p><p>“What?” Thor managed to say out loud this time, as his back hit the mattress. His word came out as a croak. “Loki?...Hela?”</p><p>The healer’s face registered conflict. “They both live. They are both as yet unconscious, but appear to be healing.”</p><p>Thor lay stunned, trying to make sense of this. They had struck her...</p><p>“Hela’s power has been broken,” the healer went on. He turned his back on Thor, and Thor heard the grinding of a pestle in a mortar. “She is yet weak, like you.”</p><p>“And Loki?” Thor asked, dreading the answer. </p><p>“Loki was hurt after you defeated Hela and her Legion. He...” The grinding sound became louder, almost angry.</p><p>“He what?” demanded Thor.</p><p>“He was hurt...” the healer repeated, and then went on reluctantly. “The Asgardians came to kill Hela after her Legion had been vanquished, after she’d been defeated. And Loki...fought them off. Protected her. Almost at the cost of his own life.”</p><p>The healer went silent, continuing to prepare the medicine.</p><p>“Eventually, Heimdall persuaded the Asgardians to let him take them into custody. We await your command. What shall be done with such an enemy? And such a <i>traitor.”</i> The healer spit the last word angrily. Then he turned and handed Thor a pellet, the medicine he had just prepared. “But, you must regain your strength first. Take this and sleep.”</p><p>“Let me know immediately when Loki awakens,” Thor demanded of the healer. </p><p>The healer nodded reluctantly, then stood there gazing at Thor. His face held a complex mix of emotions — concern, fondness, judgement, resignation. </p><p>Thor swallowed the pellet. It was bitter, so bitter. The potion immediately seized hold of him and dragged him deep into the well of sleep.</p><p>~~~</p><p>Thor had had similar dreams before. His brother had learned when they were still young how to invade his sleep, and had used the ability to torment him, dropping in at random to say things to Thor, show things to Thor, that Thor couldn’t walk away from.</p><p>The scariest part of it had been that Loki saved this particular torment for Thor alone. Thor knew, because when he complained about the dreams, he’d been laughed at. </p><p>“It’s not possible to invade dreams,” his mother has said. “People can share dreams only if they have agreed to.” </p><p>Leave it to Loki to find a way to do it by force. </p><p>But he hadn’t had those dreams for a while. And this one was so much more vivid.</p><p>“Loki?” Thor said in his dream. His brother appeared before him, nonchalantly holding his hands behind his back, dressed in his green leather armor. </p><p>Oddly, there was a tear in the armor over the heart, and a blood stain. </p><p>“You are alive!” cried Thor with pleasure.</p><p>Loki’s expression did not change.</p><p>“Not quite,” he said mysteriously. “It still remains to be seen whether I’ll be able to take a physical form again. At least in the near future.”</p><p>“Why did you do it, Brother? Turn traitor, after all we did to vanquish her? Protect her with your own life?”</p><p>“Because,” Loki replied, “I understood how she felt. I told her so. You were there when I said it.”</p><p>Thor suddenly remembered. </p><p>
  <i>“Of course you and I have things in common, Hela. We have both been mistreated terribly by our father. I for one am delighted the old tyrant’s dead.”</i>
</p><p>“But she—“</p><p>“Yes, I know. ‘But she was too ambitious and deadly. She had to be locked away.’ <i>Who told you that, Thor?”</i></p><p>“Our Father...” Thor started. Then he remembered and said instead, “Odin.”</p><p>An expression of gratitude briefly crossed Loki’s face. <i>“And, Thor, what did he say about me?”</i></p><p>A gaping hole tore open in Thor’s understanding then, and he fell into it.</p><p>His father. Odin. Whom he had revered as a wise ruler. A great King. Fair and just, for all that he made the occasional mistake in judgement.</p><p>All at once he saw Odin differently. And he knew that this time, he was seeing him as he truly was.</p><p>His father had harbored a monster inside him. A monster that had twisted his mind. Caused him to create lie after lie, and force those around him to live them. Caused him to weaken, to imprison, to destroy his own children, over and over. </p><p>How long would Thor have had his favor, before Odin turned on him, too? How long before the same twisted demon took up residence in his own mind?</p><p>Loki stood before him, simply watching Thor’s realizations unfold. The expression on his face was mild. There was a little pity. A little regret. But mostly, cool assent. <i>“Welcome to the rest of the universe, Brother,”</i> Loki seemed to be saying. <i>“You may no longer continue in your comforting delusions.”</i></p><p>“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry, Brother,” Loki said. “Sorry that you had to see this. I never hated you, you know. You didn’t share in his corruption.” </p><p>“I needed to see this, Loki. I am so ashamed that I never saw it before.”</p><p>Loki said nothing, but his eyes were moist and held pain. </p><p>“I realize what this means,” said Thor. “I cannot, must not rule Asgard. Loki, you are not of his blood. Will you rule?”</p><p>“No, Thor. I already tried that, and it didn’t work out so well. And the people need an Asgardian ruler now. Maybe in a few centuries, it won’t matter so much, but...”</p><p>“What will you do, once you have a body again?” Thor had no doubt Loki’s incorporeal state was temporary. </p><p>“If — when — Hela awakens, she will need healing. It may take many years. She will need someone with her who understands a little of what she went through.”</p><p>“Yes,” agreed Thor.</p><p>“And it scarcely needs to be said that she cannot stay on Asgard. We must go where we are not well known. Where we can...disappear for a time. Perhaps a very long time.”</p><p>“You mean to go with her, then? Will you come back?”</p><p>“I’m not exactly welcome here either,” Loki pointed out.</p><p>“I should leave also, before I am tempted or talked into ruling,” said Thor, thinking out loud.</p><p>Loki again said nothing, but inclined his head a fraction of an inch. </p><p>“There’s something else,” he said at length.</p><p>Thor stared at him, waiting.</p><p>“Thanos is coming.”</p><p>“Thanos — the madman who wants to wipe out half of all life?”</p><p>“The same. I have...something he wants. I will need to keep running from him, until I can work out how to defeat him.”</p><p>“Between the two of us...what we created? Could that help defeat him?”</p><p>Loki’s gaze sharpened, and Thor thought he saw something like longing cross his face.</p><p>“Yes, Brother, I believe it could, in time.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>This set from <i>Thor: Ragnarok</i> (at approx. 32:42) is what I'm calling the coronation arches.<br/></p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>